There’s an article about the Brooklyn Street Skate Spot in the Portland Mercury. The picture is old, because phase one is done, right down to the pool coping! Disturbing news though, according to the article, Portland’s light rail is set to impinge on the spot’s footprint as early as 2014. However, I’m not sure if the author did her research, that might just be a reference to the fact that the pedestrian bridge is scheduled to be demolished. The MAX would have to pull eminent domain on all the adjacent buildings and homes too. We’ll see…. There’s also an appearance from the neighborhood sourpuss who again reiterates his displeasure that the whole thing didn’t go through the proper channels. [Photo: David Lansdown]

Ripzu skatepark in Vancouver, Wa is having a contest on Saturday November 20th, 2010 Registration Begins at 10am. Details after the jump.

The Chicago Reader has an article with Dr. Yung Tae, the physicist and skateboarder who allegedly fixed the wonky skateboard controller for the sequel to Tony Hawk Ride called Shred… that’s suppsedly out now? Geez, who knew? It’s a pretty interesting article, but real story is the half hour long video on Dr Tae’s web site titled Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning, which asks the question Can skateboarding give us a better model for teaching and learning? I’ll give you a clue, nobody bothers to make a half hour long video if the answer is “No.” It’s clearly labeled as the most important thing on his web site. “Real-life research is more like skateboarding than something manufactured in a school curriculum. The school is the thing that’s artificial and pathological.” That’s a quote from Dr Tae, so you can tell he’s passionate about it. If you’ve got still more time to kill, check out The Physics of Skateboaridng. He’s got three episode previews online. Previews for what? I don’t know yet, I’m still trying to figure out when I’m going to have time to finish the first half hour video. Yes, but as a known scientist it…

More skateboarding jests courtesy of The Onion. Youcan see some past jibes here and here. – Thanks to Colin for the… Wait up. Get off the interwebs and finish your next interview!

The Tony Hawk Action FIgure, narrowly beating out the seemingly fan favorite Outhouse. The winning story ends with Concretin Nik getting a free board, so now he’s gotten another one out that story… If I had to guess I’d say he had some help from the other Concretins. The editor’s choice goes to… stolen hamburger buns. What can I say? I like the futility of a love letter spelled out with stolen bread combined with the absurdness of an illogical mom. Truth be told, Outhouse was my second favorite. Must be the love stories. Congratulations to our winners and thanks to Weirdo Skateboards fro graciously providing the schwag.

Born Ugly #8 is out. More of the same quality stuff you’ve come to expect. There’s an nterview with Washington DC skater/photog Shaun Gregoire, an interview Rob Lee from with Richmond Virginia (no it’s not the Dukes of Hazard car…) and a feature on the Kingshighway DIY spot in Saint Louis. My favorite thing in this issue is the graphic (seen above, without the Super 8 MOtel logo) that you can photocopy (or download) for use as a t-shirt design for your own DIY spot fundraiser. The C.R.E.T.E. (Clandestine Revitalization and Enhancement of Transitionless Environments) design comes with excellent instructions, 2A being the best; If you know how to screenprint already then why are you reading this? Just go do it. It just so happens that Sauce zine has already made some, so you can get yours if you want to help as yet unnamed Porltand DIY spots.

Grimace hasn’t been around much lately. I figured he’d been put out to pasture, but a source on Wikipedia says he semi-recently appeared in a 2009 commercial. Grimace originally appeared as an evil villain, now he’s just another old man on an old school board. Grimace may say 80’s but the copyright says 1992. It’s got one of those friction flywheels in there. It’s actually pretty well built for a fast food giveaway.

Ehren Bienert is a sculptor who used to work for McFarlane Toys. He’s also a skater, and for the past three years or so he’s been sculpting some skateboarding personalities. His work is pretty amazing. He even makes the boards himself. He sculpts them in wax first, and makes a mold for a plastic resin cast. Check out Sculpt or Die. – Thanks to Heath Berg for the tip.

He’s got a potbelly for a mouth. Yeah, my old man’s a fatso, but you know he owns this house! The Angry Samoans rule, and so does having your own backyard bowl. When it rains, use a tarp, like Matt does in Grant’s Pass, Oregon. Kudos to punkerbean666 for reaching into the vault and choosing the earlier demo version of this song, it shows depth. – Via Larry Martin on Facebook.

David Carrasco was trolling Skate and Annoy and came across a photo of model of the Pepsi team van. Turns out that figure on the sode of the van is a shot of him taken from a 1977 photo that appeared in an old magazine called Wild World of Skateboarding. David is still skating with his brothers Richy and Rene over at Sk8kings.